The Gut-Skin Axis
Our skin is our largest organ. It is important because it is our first line of defense against the physical, chemical, and microbial challenges in our environment. The skin hosts millions of bacteria and just like our gut microbiome, can become compromised and imbalanced and present this in a number of ways. Many studies have linked gut and skin health. The gut and the skin are both essential organs for immune and hormonal function. They each have their own functioning microbiome but are also connected. Other microbiomes that are also interconnected include the mouth, eyes, ears, and vaginal. The microbes in our gut and in each microbiome can actually communicate with the microbes in our skin via the immune system.
How Does The Gut Affect Skin Health?
The condition of your gut can affect your skin in a number of ways. If your gut lining is compromised, tiny holes can develop in your intestines allowing for things like undigested food particles and microbes to slowly leak through the gut lining and into the bloodstream. Our immune system attacks these microbes and foods entering the bloodstream, recognizing them as invaders or toxins to the body, and some end up circulating around and end up creating an inflammatory stress response in our skin and affecting the skin microbiome.
Another way that the condition of your gut can affect your skin is through drainage. Drainage is our body’s process of removing waste, toxins, and pathogens from the body. These pathways include:
Brain glymphatics (lymph in the brain)
Body lymphatics
Liver/gallbladder (via the gallbladder’s production of bile)
Colon (via bowel movements)
Kidneys (via urine)
Skin (via sweating)
Each of these pathways is connected and they rely on each other to properly drain and detox. If any or all of these pathways are not functioning optimally, toxins will not be able to exit the body and will recirculate. Oftentimes, with nowhere else to go, these toxins and byproducts will exit via the skin and can present in a number of different ways I go into below.
Depending on the types of microbes you have in your gut and which of them become inflammatory to the skin, your skin can have different reactions and sometimes even more than one. A skin reaction is a symptom, a sign that something is wrong, and a cry for help from the body. Some common skin issues and disorders that are linked to disruptions in the gut microbiome include the following. These conditions are symptoms of a leaky gut and/or poor drainage somewhere along the chain.
Acne
Rosacea
Eczema / Atopic Dermatitis
Psoriasis
Process for healing the gut and skin
When someone comes to me with one or more of these skin issues I will always start looking for the root cause of the dysfunction INSIDE the body that is presenting as acne, rosacea, eczema, and/or psoriasis. Almost always the root cause is whatever is causing the leaky gut and/or dysfunction along the drainage funnel. These root causes are not the same in everyone and may include: nutritional deficiencies, emotional trauma, environmental toxins, stress, blood sugar imbalances, parasites, heavy metals, mold, Lyme and Lyme c0-infections, and viruses.
No matter the root cause, I first work with my clients to up the drainage pathways to get things flowing and moving as they should. We will work on healing and sealing the gut lining while we also discuss foods to include, stress management and lifestyle techniques to support the process, and supplements and nutrients to help restore. Once we’ve worked on this for some time, we will go deeper to address the root causes I mentioned above.
Strategies to support the skin right away
If you want to start to work on your gut right now, here are some good strategies to begin with.
Remove triggers/food sensitivities for a period of time. Food sensitivities are not a root cause and removing them doesn’t have to be forever. Once your gut is in a good place you can bring back in foods that gave you trouble in the past. This is always a goal I have with my clients, to get you eating the widest variety of foods possible. In the meantime, if you notice that certain foods are inflammatory for you and are contributing to your skin issues, take them out for now. It can give the skin a break and a chance to calm down while we work on what is going on internally that is causing you to be reactive to these foods.
Eat balanced meals and snacks. Eating meals that contain a balance of protein, carbs, and fat at every meal will help to keep your blood sugar stable and your overall inflammation and stress burden lower. Over time being on the blood sugar roller coaster can cause additional stress and inflammation in your body which can hurt your digestion and gut health. For this reason, I love the strategy of starting savory.
Add gut-healing foods to your diet. I’ve got a whole post here on my favorite gut-healing foods, but some of them include aloe vera juice, bone broth, ginger, beets, and apple cider vinegar. Try the ABC salad for liver support which tends to be very helpful for acne sufferers!
Stay hydrated. A good general baseline is to drink half of your body weight in ounces per day. For MOST people 60-80 ounces is usually about right. This also depends on your activity levels and the time of the year. I generally don’t have people go much over that, even if their weight dictates more. I do think it is important to listen to your body. Notice how you feel and how your energy is. If you’re drinking a healthy amount of water your urine will be light to transparent yellow. Though most people believe clear urine is the healthiest sign of hydration, having urine with no color to it at all may be a sign that you’re drinking too much water.
Manage your stress. Stress can keep you from getting into that parasympathetic, relaxed state for eating and is linked to gut inflammation and dysfunction. Even 5-10 minutes a day can really help. If you’ve got 5 minutes, try breathing exercises like box breathing, a few sun salutations, a quick walk around the block, or some squats and jumping jacks. If you’ve got 10 minutes, try a meditation - Insight Timer (free!) and Calm have short, guided meditations, journaling for a few minutes, a 10-minute yoga session, or just listening to some calming music while you relax. I love this Spotify playlist of calming, healing frequencies tunes.
Work with a practitioner. While I work with my clients on what is going on inside the body that relates to their skin conditions because this is where the root cause lies, there are definitely treatments that can work to reduce the inflammation and the symptoms from the outside. This can be super helpful in the short term as healing from the root cause can take time and these skin issues are often uncomfortable or painful. I typically suggest working with an experienced esthetician who can suggest the right products.
Curious to learn more about your symptoms and where in the digestive process things may be going wrong, but not ready to work with me? Check out my FREE Gut Assessment. I provide some additional tips for troubleshooting certain symptoms
Resources:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7916842/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29756631/
https://chriskresser.com/the-gut-skin-connection-how-altered-gut-function-affects-the-skin/